The new National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Adamu, and his Deputy, Abubakar Kyari, both current senators, may be forced to retire from the Senate due to an alleged constitutional violation.
Experts say their situations violate constitutional provisions enunciated in the Jegede Vs Akeredolu case, in which the apex court held in a minority judgment that the nomination of Rotimi Akeredolu would have been vitiated if the then APC Interim Chairman and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mallam Buni, had been included as a party in the appeal, because Buni was an elected officer and not supposed to have held the position of the party’s Caretake Committee Chairman.
When asked about the legal position on Adamu and Kyari combining party offices with elected senatorial positions, human rights activist and constitutional lawyer Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, told journalists yesterday that “the duo of Adamu and Kyari could not legally hold those positions” based on the Supreme Court’s position on the matter.
“The courts say this isn’t conceivable,” Agbakoba remarked, referring to the Supreme Court judgment on Akeredolu, in which he claimed the court made a reference about an elected politician also holding a party office, invalidating the election, adding, “this was all Buni’s wahala as interim party chair.”
Justice Peter-Odili sustained the appeal and dismissed the cross-appeals by INEC, APC, Akeredolu, and Aiyedatiwa in the Jegede vs Akeredolu case.
Because the APC, for which Buni worked, was a party in the lawsuit, Justice Odili decided that he didn’t need to be added as a party.
She stated that the party should face the consequences of its illegality for allowing Buni to act on its behalf in signing the nomination/sponsorship letters of its candidates in Ondo, notwithstanding the plain prohibitions of section 183 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 17(4) of the APC constitution.
“I do not agree with the majority judgment,” she insisted, pointing out that the APC, by Article 17(4) of its constitution had provided for how its affairs should be managed and what offices its members should occupy at a time.
The implication, she said, was that Akeredolu’s and his deputy’s nominations and candidacies were null and void.
“The first appellant (Jegede) who has the majority of legitimate votes” should be proclaimed the election winner, she said.
Buni’s simultaneous tenure as the National Chairman of the APC and the Governor of Yobe State, according to Justice Peter-Odili, was illegal and violated Article 17(4) of the APC constitution as well as Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution.
INEC, APC, Akeredolu, and Aiyedatiwa’s cross-appeals were dismissed by Justices Ejembi Eko and Mohammed Saulawa, who concurred with Justice Peter-Odili in maintaining the appeal and dismissing the INEC, APC, Akeredolu, and Aiyedatiwa’s cross-appeals.
